November 19, 2014 – The Oyo State Government has commended Smile Communications Nigeria Limited, a broadband internet service provider, for assisting 25 secondary schools in the state with free internet service.
Commissioner for Education, Prof. Solomon Olaniyonu made the commendation at the weekend during the official commissioning of internet facilities at Wesley College of Science, Ibadan. The facilities were provided by Smile. Twenty-four schools had earlier been connected.
He noted that Smile has taken the lead in assisting students in the state to have access to vast knowledge via internet technology; emphasizing that with such assistance, the state’s e-learning initiative which he said was being fine-tuned, would be fast-tracked towards making education easy and better.
He added that the provision of free Super-fast Internet access together with router and monthly renewable data bundle of 20GB to secondary schools within Ibadan metropolis would go a long way towards improving and enriching lives using the power of technology.
He explained that the state government was poised towards making education highly computerized by introducing e-learning in secondary schools. Though, the initiative is yet to fully take off, Olaniyonu hinted that there was a demonstration and that government is still fine-tuning the process to ensure that schools in all the nooks and crannies benefit from the scheme once it takes off.
According to him, about four schools in each local government area of the state have been selected for pilot study while a memorandum of understanding would soon be signed by the state government and the Chinese company handling the project.
Like the proverbial Oliver Twist, the Commissioner said he would be grateful if Smile Communications Limited can extend its internet services to schools in other areas of the state particularly rural communities.
He however, lamented the non-electrification of some communities and the general poor state of power supply in the country. He therefore used the opportunity to ask the federal government to prevail on the new electricity distribution companies to hasten the extension of power supply to rural areas.
Olaniyonu who was full of appreciation for Smile’s ability to assist learning in schools under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) scheme noted that with the internet connectivity and broadband, the state would find it earlier to move its educational objectives to higher stakes.
He pointed out that government has designated five school s for the training of science students in line with its objective of producing more science teachers for state’s schools, adding that government will soon establish a university of technology with focus on the sciences.
Speaking on efforts to fast track e-learning in the state, he said government is already looking at the possibility of establishing a company to produce laptops in addition to subsidy which he said government would provide to enable every student to own a laptop.
Earlier in her speech, Chief Marketing Officer of Smile Communications Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Alero Ladipo who led other officials of the company to the event explained that the objective of her company was to provide a platform where students can derive information, communication technology (ICT) knowledge with ease.
According to her, Smile is expanding its services to other states but Oyo State, specifically the city of Ibadan was fortunate to be the first to benefit as 24 schools had earlier been connected before Wesley College of Science. “We hope the data provided will give students opportunity to learn more,” she said.
She explained in detail: “Smile is not about providing computers or laptops but rather the data in the internet service and as humanity is one of our key values, one of our key objectives is to give students the opportunity to express things on-line, expose their minds and increase their knowledge on the use of internet.”
For now, only public secondary schools are benefiting from such assistance and the 25 so far assisted are in Ibadan but Smile’s spokesperson hinted that schools in other parts of Oyo State and other states in the federation would benefit in due course.
In her words, “we have already started talking to the Ministry of Education in Abuja and commissioners of education in Rivers and Lagos States for schools to benefit. So anywhere we go, we will always make this service available to public schools.”
As a way of testifying to what Smile has done, randomly selected students of Wesley College of Science seated with their mini-laptops at the occasion practically demonstrated their ability to access information in various subject areas via the internet.
Specifically, one of them who was researching on a topic in biology told the commissioner how the internet had assisted her to understand a sub-topic on ‘commensalism’ which she described as the relationship between two organisms where one derives benefit from the other while the other is neither benefiting nor losing anything.
Some other students testified of their ability to access information on topics in chemistry, physics and other subjects. Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, a senior secondary school (III) student, Fasasia Oladipupo appreciated the assistance from Smile and used the opportunity to request for more laptops as the available ones were not enough to serve the students.
According to the Principal of Wesley College, Mrs. Adenike Okuade, the school at present has 50 laptops to serve the entire student population. These, according to her were provided by the Oyo State Government while Smile Communications Limited which commenced active services in the state in 2013 assisted with the internet facilities.
Smile, according to its Chief Marketing Officer, has been on ground in the past six years gradually building its services but went into full operation with a proper launch in Ibadan, Oyo State in 2013. It moved to Lagos and now, it is extending to Abuja and Port Harcourt as broadband service provider.
The company already has offices in Tanzania, Uganda while its Democratic Republic of Congo office would soon come on stream.
